Various game board structures have been proposed to simulate actual confrontations between parties to provide a more realistic game. This has been accomplished by allowing simultaneous movement by each player without observation by his opponent thereby, introducing the additional uncertainty that the exact location of the opponent is not known and increasing the total number of possible outcomes.
One structure showing such simultaneous movement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,794,641 which issued to Baker et al, June 4, 1957. This structure has a removable shield member disposed between two upright board members with a number of apertures for locating playing pieces. The structure also allows the game environment to be changed by inserting sheets within the shield member to add a further variant to the game conditions.
My copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 358 filed Jan. 2, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,864, also allows simultaneous movement by a number of players by providing a structure which uses a number of playing boards which are slidably received within a structure such that the boards may be superimposed and the resulting combination observed from above. The structure includes a viewing means located above the superimposed playing boards which has a number of columns which may be opened or closed to restrict the viewable area. Although this structure is very useful for three or more players, it is awkward and time consuming when only two players are playing, as they each must take turns using the viewer which must be adjusted for each player. The Baker et al patent, although it allows simultaneous movement by each player, suffers in that the game conditions are set by the sheets placed in the removable shield which are known to the players before the start of the game and in that once the shield is removed, the opponent's total playing surface is revealed.
According to the present invention, a game apparatus is provided which is simple in structure and easy to operate while providing the advantages of simultaneous movement and limited observation, according to the location of playing pieces. Furthermore, according to an aspect of the invention, the game conditions can be set by one or both of the players before the commencement of the game, thereby giving the total freedom in the layout of the game conditions and increasing the uncertainty regarding the game conditions as all game conditions may not be known to each player at the start of the game and must be uncovered as the game progresses.